


Carol and Paeden's Day Out

by JoyHeart



Category: Dungeons and Daddies (Podcast)
Genre: Babysitting, Character Study, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Mental turmoil, Multi, Polyamory, Prompt Fic, blood mention, careful the things you say children will listen, trauma mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:22:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28576698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoyHeart/pseuds/JoyHeart
Summary: Carol has been having a rough time adjusting to life post-divorce, but she's trying, even going as far as to invite her ex-husband and his new lovers over for dinner on the regular. Unfortunately, she seems to have gotten off on the wrong foot when it comes to the strange new child Darryl had brought back from that magical world they had gotten lost in. When Carol finds out Paeden thinks she hates him and is given the opportunity to babysit him one sunny Saturday, Carol is determined to show this kid that not only does she not hate him, but that she is probably the coolest adult ever and is totally not a ball of stress over the idea that she might've thrown away a perfectly good home life without any idea how to find happiness again.Maybe Carol's the one who needs a babysitter... Paeden's gonna have his work cut out for him this time.
Relationships: Henry Oak/Mercedes Oak-Garcia/Darryl Wilson, Paeden Bennetts & Carol Wilson
Comments: 14
Kudos: 24





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt for Carol babysitting Paeden! It got... too long! so it's a two-shot now instead of a one-shot.
> 
> The prologue here is from Carol's perspective, but the second may swap around a bit between them, or maybe be all Paeden? Haven't quite decided yet. Anyway, the first chapter might be a bit stressful but the second chapter will be very fluffy so stay tuned.

**Carol and Paeden’s Day Out**

**1 Prologue**

When Darryl and Grant returned from the Forgotten Realms, bruised and bloodied and clearly traumatized with an extra kid in tow, frankly Carol didn’t know what to think. How do you deal with something like that? She had told Darryl she wanted a divorce, and now her son was already suffering so much in ways she didn’t know how to help him with. She had asked Grant if he would feel better if she and Darryl stayed together for now, she would feel alright keeping the marriage going for her son’s sake at least for a while… and yet even he had told her directly (if monotonously) that having his parents stay to together just to keep him from getting more depressed wasn’t actually going to help his mental health any. Carol respected his judgement. He seemed more mature since the day of the soccer tournament. Sometimes in ways that scared Carol, but more often in ways that simply made her more willing to accept that he knew what he needed better than she did much of the time.

So the divorce went through. Carol paid her child support and alimony and moved into a two bedroom condo on the other side of the city, leaving Darryl, Grant, and this new one, Paeden, in the original house. After a while, Darryl got a job of his own and Carol’s alimony payment lowered, and she kept her distance. She still had Grant every other weekend and picked him up after school some days. But for the first six months, Grant was her main source of information about Darryl and about Paeden.

Darryl was in a relationship with one of the other dads who claimed to have gone to that magical other world. Him and his wife Mercedes, too. Carol didn’t know how that worked, but as soon as she learned they were dating her ex-husband she avoided them at PTA meetings as much as she tried to avoid Darryl. Darryl had a new job, new lovers… what did Carol have? An apartment to herself, a job that’s salary didn’t reach as far when they weren’t all under the same roof? A lot of her friends had pulled away from her when they learned the divorce was her idea, even when Darryl tried his best to tell them not to choose sides and that they were still friends…

Carol had isolated herself. Her therapist kept telling her to reach back out to her old friends, even to Darryl, to stop trying to punish herself for ‘breaking up her family’. It was easier said than done.

But at eight months after the end of her marriage, Carol finally sucked it up and called Darryl. At first she acted like she was calling to check up after Grant, see how his therapy was going, but after that she asked Darryl about how Henry and Mercedes were and it was like her ex-husband came to life as he gushed over how they were teaching Darryl to cook new vegan dishes, and how Henry asked Darryl to teach him how to brew beer properly.

Then he asked her about how her work was going. It hadn’t changed much. She deflected the question and asked about Paeden, how he was settling in to things.

Darryl gushed again. Said how Mercedes had already dealt with one person from another world appearing with no documentation in this world, and in the case of Paeden he was technically registered as a ward of the state and a foster child living with Henry and Mercedes, but he slept at Darryl’s house about half the time and they were working on formally adopting him and the prospects of doing that were simply more streamlined if the potential adopters were a married couple.

The system sucks, but they had a work around. Things sounded like they were going well. Carol put the phone on speaker and laid on her floor, staring at the ceiling as she wondered if leaving Darryl was a mistake. She missed listening to him talk. She missed living in the house with Grant. She missed her friends, and not having to avoid people’s eyes.

But when she thought about pretending to be _in love_ with Darryl again, when she thought about having to kiss him and sleep in the same bed as him and constantly feel the nagging guilt that she was in some way lying about her feelings… she couldn’t go back to that. It had been eating at her, slowly.

No, her relationship with Darryl as it was, that was in the past. Anyway, he had clearly moved on. But if he had, was there any real reason why Carol shouldn’t try to bring him back into her life now, as an actual friend this time? Because she still loved him as a friend, still missed him as a friend. They shared a son together.

“You should come around here for dinner sometime,” Carol heard herself say, “Bring everybody, Grant, Paeden, the Oak-Garcia’s… it could be real nice.”

“ _Uh, you cook now_?” Darryl’s voice on the phone sounded disbelieving.

“I’ll order in.”

“ _Uh, Paeden, Lark and Sparrow are kind of rambunctious. Your neighbours might complain about the noise.”_

“Let them. It’s too quiet over here. Come for dinner Friday.”

*

Dinner on Friday went better than Carol’s spiralling sense of doom made her fear it would go. Inviting a bunch of people who knew each other better than they knew her meant that even when Carol felt a little overwhelmed and withdrew back from the conversation it kept going easy enough without her. Henry and Mercedes were a bit eccentric, but seemed to be nice people who genuinely loved Darryl. They certainly said it often enough, and had to problem draping themselves all over him.

Carol never liked touching as much as Darryl did. This was good, she told herself. This was what she wanted. She wanted Darryl to find someone else he could be happy with. She just… well, probably selfishly, she had assumed she would find someone else before he did. She didn’t even feel like she could say she was a little uncomfortable with all the physical affection because this was _her_ fault, _she_ was the one who couldn’t love Darryl as much as he loved her and…

“I’m going to put some coffee on!” Carol said quickly getting to her feet from her arm chair. Darryl and Henry were lounging on the couch while Mercedes sat on the floor lazily braiding the tassels on Carol’s area rug. The boys were hanging out in Carol’s bedroom watching a movie she put on for them last she checked, maybe she should swing by and make sure Grant was okay before she came back to the living room too, that would buy some minutes.

Urgh, she was avoiding people again. Why did this have to be so hard? At least there were people in her condo now, which was good. Felt homier than it had, anyway.

In the kitchen Carol started filling the coffee maker, trying very hard not to start spirally as she did so. She wasn’t going to blame herself for this anymore. She had invited people over, they were having a good time. There was no reason to be upset. No reason. None at all.

“Ms. Carol! Uh, our party has run out of popcorn and I was sent to get more, so-” the bright voice startled Carol badly and the mug in her hands slid from her grip to shatter on the floor.

“You okay in there?” Darryl’s voice called from the living room.

“Fine! Don’t worry!” Carol called back, heart still beating wildly as she looked down and saw the little red-headed, squishy-cheeked Paeden reaching down to pick up the shards bare-handed. “NO! Leave that alone!”

“Uh, oh no, I’m sor- ow!” Paeden hissed as his hands shook and the edge of one of the larger shards cut into his palm, drops of blood dripping onto the floor. “Oh, the uh, I-I-I-”

“Get off the floor! Get back!” Carol snapped, waving an arm so Paeden scrambled to his feet and backed up faster than lightning as she opened the cupboard under the sink to grab her broom and dustpan. “ _Never_ pick up a broken plate with your bare hands, you hear me? You get a grown-up for help and leave it alone!”

“Uh, uh, r-right, s-s-s-sorry, uh, I’m gonna just… I’m gonna go? Sorry,” Paeden scurried off and Carol groaned, rubbing her forehead and then forcing herself to move, to get the shards in the garbage, to finish the coffee.

Grant walked in just as she was mixing in the sugar and cream the way she knew Darryl liked. “Mom, uh, I took a Band-Aid out of your medicine cabinet cause Paeden cut himself on something. We’re out of popcorn, can I make some more?”

“Sure hon, whatever you want, just be careful on the floor. I dropped a mug and there might still be shards, let me know if you see any.”

“Sure, mom.”

Carol went back to the living room, quickly explained about dropping the mug, and assured Darryl that Grant had gotten Paeden a Band-Aid. The incident passed, and Carol would almost have written the evening off as something of a success if she hadn’t noticed Paeden clearly avoiding eye contact with her when Darryl requested he tell her goodbye.

Left alone in her condo again, Carol told herself everything was fine. There was no way telling a kid not to pick up a broken mug would come back to bite her.

*

The next time Carol invited the group over, she tried to greet Paeden with a smile, but the boy seemed wary of her, avoiding her eyes as if by instinct and giving a respectful, “No, thank you,” to any snacks or drinks Carol offered him even when the other three boys dug into the rice crispy squares at the speed of light.

Before Carol joined the adults in the living room, she pulled Grant aside. “Grant, how’s Paeden doing? Make sure he eats something too, okay?”

“Huh? Paeden’s always fine, mom. But yeah, sure, I guess.”

Carol nodded and joined her party again. This time Henry and Mercedes were on the couch and Darryl was on one of the kitchen chairs he’d dragged in. Henry’s hand still spent nearly the whole time on Darryl’s knee.

Carol was happy to have people around. It still felt weird.

*

When driving Grant back to his dad’s house after one of his usual visiting weekends, the shoe dropped. “Hey mom? So, Paeden thinks you hate him. You don’t, right?”

“What?!” Carol felt a chill race down her spine, “No, of course not! Why would he think that?”

“I tried to tell him,” Grant grumbled, “He said you were really mad that he made you break that mug and you don’t really talk to him. But I told him that when he’s around you’re mostly talking to dad and the Oak-Garcia’s so it’s not like you really spent time together…”

“I wasn’t mad about the mug, I was afraid he was going to hurt himself!”

“Mom, it’s fine, I understand. I’ll just explain it to Paeden, really, don’t worry about it,” Grant insisted as Carol pulled into Darryl’s driveway and Grant leaned over to let her hug him goodbye.

“Okay, honey. If you say so.”

As Carol drove back across town to her condo, she tried her best not to worry. Her best was not good enough. She worried.

*

The next time the group was over, the air felt a little heavier and Carol couldn’t figure out why at first. She kept prodding, asking first Mercedes and then Darryl what was wrong, but it was Henry that cracked first.

“Oh geez, Carol we don’t want to ruin the good mood, you know? But it’s just, Darryl and I were planning to go to San Diego on Saturday for the Bay Wine and Food Festival! Mercedes was working, and Grant, Lark and Sparrow were going to a birthday party for someone in Grant’s class. We thought we could get Paeden to tag along to the party but they only had a certain amount of tickets to the IMAX movie they’re seeing and the showing is sold out already. And the Stamplers and the Closes ae busy and can’t babysit, so looks like Darryl and I won’t be able to go.”

“It’s not that big a deal, though!” Darryl cut in. “I mean, the festival goes on for two weeks, there might be another chance if Henry and I can get the same day off work.”

“That’s not a guarantee though!” Henry frowned. “It’s really hard to get a day off at the same time, we had to book this day off so far in advance… I’m sorry, I was just really looking forward to going with you, Darryl. We haven’t gotten to go on a trip just me and you before, it would’ve been nice.”

“I’m sorry for you as well, my lion,” Mercedes patted Henry’s shoulder glumly. “Your pain is mine.”

Carol’s eyes brightened. Finally, something she could do to help and show she could be a good friend, still! Plus she could make things up to the Paeden kid! Awkwardness who? “Saturday, you mean tomorrow?”

“Yeah?” Darryl blinked.

“Well, I’m not doing anything tomorrow. You can drop Paeden off here on your way out, and we’ll spend the day together!”

“Oh!” Henry leaned forward, smiling in excitement. “Thank you so much for offering! Are you sure that won’t disrupt your plans?”

Carol could have laughed. What plans? “Oh no, it’s fine. I’d love to spend some time with him, he seems like a good kid. And uh, well it feels weird that Darryl’s got this kid in his life he views as a son that I’ve barely been around. We’ll watch some sci-fi movies, go to the park…” Carol trailed off. It had been a while since she spent time with any kid other than Grant and he tended to want to keep things low key. Well, how different could Paeden be from Grant at that age?

“Um,” Darryl cleared his throat, “Well, if you’re up for it, I’m okay with it. Just to warn you though, Paeden can be uh, he can be a bit of a handful? So if things go wrong, don’t hesitate to call me, we’ll turn right around if you need help.”

Carol snorted. “He’s one kid, Darryl, and it’s not like you parented Grant on your own all this time. I can handle it.”

“Oh, thank you Carol!” Mercedes grinned, taking up Carol’s hand and squeezing it warmly. Carol blushed. “You have made my lions so happy, I’ll have to come up with something good to thank you!”

Carol hummed and nodded silently, her blush growing. When Mercedes finally let go the warmth of her hands seemed to linger and when the conversation moved on Carol smiled a little to herself.

Finally, she felt a bit less like the outsider that forced herself in. Now she just needed to figure out how Paeden fit into hers and Darryl’s lives, and prove to him that she didn’t _hate_ him, god.

How did she mess up bad enough to make a nine year old think she _hated_ him? Her smile faded slightly at the thought. Jesus, she hoped she wouldn’t screw that up again tomorrow. Oh no, why had she agreed to this? What if she made it worse and Paeden didn’t want to even come to the condo anymore and…

No, no, it’s fine. Carol could handle this. She told herself that as the three guests in her living room laughed, the positive energy returning to the space.

Paeden still didn’t come out of the bedroom with the boys even once before it was time to go home.


	2. The Zoo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carol and Paeden's day out begins with a trip to the zoo! What trouble could ensue at a zoo you may ask? Paeden will find some, trust me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so this will be 4 chapters now I guess. Jesus.

**2 The Zoo**

Paeden had a lot of complicated feelings about Earth. There wasn’t any magic here, and he couldn’t summon knives out of nowhere now, and he had to pee regularly. On the other hand, things tended to scar deeper and video games were fun, and going to school was kind of interesting even if the other kids in his ‘grade’ were kind of wimps and he got stuck in detention on a pretty much daily basis for trying to fight them for the first few months until Grant sat him down and gave him a ‘PowerPoint Presentation’ on what appropriate combat looked like on Earth. Paeden found these new rules restrictive, but with Lark and Sparrow’s assistance, his dance battle prowess was improving by the day.

Paeden had thought he was sliding into life on Earth rather nicely. School conflicts aside, he spent lots of time hanging out with the dads and the sons. He bounced around between Darryl and Grant’s house and the Oak-Garcia house for the most part, though he spent some time with the Stamplers helping them with yard work and financing, and at the Closes helping them with stuff that they made him swear he wouldn’t tell Darryl about (it was cool, Paeden was no narc).

However, not even a year after Paeden started his new life, Darryl, Henry, and Mercedes had thrown a new variable into the equation. Carol-formerly-Wilson, Darryl’s ex-wife. She was around a bit more at the beginning of Paeden’s stay, during which time he was primarily living with Henry and his family since the Wilson household was ‘going through a rough patch’ that ended with Carol moving out. Seeing as Paeden wasn’t given the option to see her after that point, he had assumed that she wasn’t coming back and therefore Paeden should be spending his time dealing with the onslaught of other new people he was expected to memorize the names and faces of.

And then, suddenly, Darryl announced that Carol invited them all to her house for a ‘dinner party’, which turned out to be more of a ‘adults talk about boring stuff while the kids snuggled on a bed in a dark room watching fighting movies and eating snacks until Lark got bored and started a pillow fight’. But that was fine, Paeden could roll with that.

Then they ran out of popcorn, and after a fierce tournament of rock-paper-scissors, Paeden was sent to the kitchen to procure more. And there Paeden found Grant’s mom, Carol, making coffee.

He hadn’t meant to scare her into dropping the mug, but when he tried to help he got yelled at, and Carol never came around to punish him over it or tell him how to make it better, and well… Paeden just didn’t know what he was supposed to do. This situation hadn’t been included in Grant’s helpful PowerPoint presentations, and Paeden felt awkward telling Grant he’d made his mom mad, so he’d just muttered that he cut his hand and didn’t know how to make popcorn. Grant took care of it, and it was fine, and Paeden avoided Carol until it was time to leave.

It was fine. He survived it, and now he never had to worry about making Carol mad again.

Only then these ‘dinner parties’ became a regular occurrence, and Paeden’s stress levels started to spike. He wouldn’t even look at Carol to stay out of her way, so certain he was that she didn’t want him around after he messed up like he did. He would vanish into the bedroom as soon as dinner was over, and wouldn’t leave for anything, even if he had to pee _real_ bad.

After the second time that happened, Grant noticed and interrogated him over it when they got home. Paeden finally admitted to what he had done, and that Carol clearly hated him and he didn’t want to mess up their visits for everyone else just because Carol had beef with him.

Grant had called him an idiot, but Paeden was still sure he was right until Grant came back a couple days later insisting he spoke to his mom and insisted she didn’t hate Paeden.

So Paeden had to at least accept that Carol didn’t hate him, because Grant would never lie directly to him like that. But just because Carol didn’t hate him, that didn’t mean she _liked_ him any.

“Well, if you’re that worried about it, why can’t you do something to make her like you more, then?” Grant had asked with a sigh, and that had driven Paeden’s mind into overdrive. Why hadn’t he thought of that before? He was Paeden, he was awesome! He could figure out how to make Carol like him, and then Darryl never needed to know they hadn’t gotten along before, and everything would be fine.

The only thing he lacked was opportunity, but after the next ‘dinner party’, Darryl came through for him without even meaning to when he announced that Carol would be ‘babysitting’ him the whole next day while Darryl and Henry went to this ‘food and wine festival’ that sounded, frankly, boring as heck.

In his bedroom with Grant late that night, Paeden was pacing the floor. “I’ve gotta figure this out. It’s gotta be perfect. What does your mom like? Flowers? Chocolate? Combat?”

“Dude, you’re not going on a date with her, what are you talking about?”

“I just don’t want to mess this up, man. Carol’s an important part of our lives now-”

“She’s my _mom_ she was always important?”

“A new dynamic you might say. I don’t want to mess this up for Mercedes, she’s got something going for her obviously…”

“Uh, what.”

“And Darryl and Henry need this to go well too. We got off on the wrong foot, but that all changes tomorrow! You just wait Grant, your mom and I will have the best day ever, and by the end? She’s gonna love me. That’s Paeden-style.”

Grant stared at Paeden silently for a while. “…kay.” And then he left, presumably to go to bed and not think about Paeden obsessing over his mom anymore. Paeden didn’t let that bother him. He knew what he had to do. That pretty lady wasn’t going to know what hit her, she was going to have the time of her life, Paeden-style.

*

Paeden was dropped off at Carol’s building early Saturday morning. As soon as Darryl and Henry reassured her she should call at any time and pulled away, Carol turned to the skinny kid shivering on the sidewalk and frowned.

“Why don’t you have a jacket?”

“D-d-don’t need one. Don’t w-worry about ol’ Paeden ma’am, I’m t-t-tough.”

“Uh huh,” Carol said. “Did you leave your jacket in Henry’s car?”

“Uhhhh….” Paeden started turning as red as his hair, his fingers twisting together in front of him as he shivered in the cool November air.

“It’s fine!” Carol said quickly, holding up her hands, “You can borrow one of Grant’s. I can’t believe Darryl would just let you out of the car like that without noticing.”

“Hey, it’s not that bad! Really! I d-don’t want to be a bother or-” he sneezed, “a-anything… aw man.”

“Come on, let’s get in,” Carol sighed, ushering the kid into the house before he caught a cold or something. His nose was already dripping. Darryl better not blame her for this or he had another thing coming.

Once Paeden was set up on the living room couch holding a bagel and cream cheese and nibbling on it while looking at her warily, Carol realised that she did not have a plan. When Grant visited, he tended to bring his Switch with him and they’d play video games and order food… they had a routine. She didn’t have a routine for Paeden.

What did she know about Paeden, really? He wasn’t from Earth, and Darryl said he was an orphan, and he liked… fighting? Yeah, Carol didn’t want to encourage that.

Well, if he was new to San Dimas, maybe there was something they could do in the city? Carol sat on the chair across from the kid and brushed some imaginary dust off her pants. “So, Paeden. You’ve been living on Earth for a while now. How’s that been going so far?”

“Uh,” Paeden swallowed a bite of bagel and nodded. “Pretty good! It’s really different from Faerun. Most people seem pretty nice! Generally less deadly overall, which is weird but not in a bad way I guess.”  
“Uh huh,” Carol nodded, feeling like she was already losing her footing here. “School’s going well?”

“Oh heck yeah!” Paeden said, finally smiling wide enough to pick out the wide gaps where he was missing teeth. “My teacher even said that if I keep it up, I’ll be done with that school by Christmas break! Sounds pretty cool, don’t know what I’m going to do after finishing school that early. Go into the family business I guess. That radio station office is hella cool.”

“Uh… huh...” She might have to make a list of things to bring up with Darryl, something told her there might be a lot. “So what’ve you done around the city so far? Has Darryl taken you to do anything fun?”

“Oh yeah, loads of stuff. We played football, and soccer, and laser tag. Grant showed me how to play Fortnite and Minecraft which I took to like a _duck to water_ , totally my thing. Oh! And Darryl showed me how to build a chair, that was kind of fun. And Henry and Mercedes took me to the beach when it was warmer out. Lot of people there, and did you know that Earth has barely any pirates at all? So weird. Lots of colourful towels though, and Lark and Sparrow buried me in the sand and Henry yelled at them because he thought that I couldn’t break free before the tide started coming in, but little did he know that, heh, I totally could have!”

“Did you?” Carol asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh nah, Henry wouldn’t even let me try for more than like, ten minutes before he started digging me out. I tried to explain that the pressure of the incoming tide and a watery grave would give me the adrenaline push I’d need to claw my way out, but he wouldn’t listen.”

Carol took a moment to be grateful that Henry, at least, seemed to have some level of common sense. “What about the zoo? Have you been to the L.A. Zoo yet?”

“Zoo?” Paeden frowned, clearly confused. “What’s a zoo? Sounds kind of familiar, they might’ve said something about it in school but I don’t really pay attention to what they say there. I mostly go for the social atmosphere and the free gym membership.”

“… okay. Well, a zoo’s a place where you go to see animals! You probably haven’t seen that many Earth animals, right?”

“Henry’s family has a bird, a dog, and a goat. I have also seen cats, and lizards.”

“What about a tiger?” Carol asked. The absolutely spark of all-consuming childish desire that lit in Paeden’s eyes brought a satisfied smirk to her face.

“Th-th-thu-the-they have t-tigers at the zoo? Tigers? I want- can we see the tigers? I want to-” suddenly his face crumpled, “No I… you don’t have to if you don’t want to…”

“Paeden, I have a _yearly pass_ to the L.A. Zoo, I’d go to the zoo every day of the week if I didn’t work. Did you want to go to the zoo and see a tiger, bud?”

Paeden’s head started nodding so vigorously Carol wondered if it was going to fall off.

*

Paeden had chattered the whole car ride to the zoo about different kids he had fought at school and why, and how ‘one day he would best Lark and Sparrow in combat’ and then was showing Carol all the scars and burn marks he had ‘won in battle’ and eventually Carol had turned on the radio. Paeden was immediately distracted and begged Carol to change it to Mercedes’s station, and the second classical music filled the air, Paeden stared directly out the windshield in dead, zoned-out silence until the car was parked in the parking lot.

When they got into the zoo, it quickly became evident that Paeden had no patience for the bug pavilions and smaller animals that ringed the entrance of the zoo. He wanted the big ticket stuff, which the zoo tended to put around the edge of the property in hopes of directing the crowd to go around in a big circle and not all bottleneck at the entrance.

“Woah, hey, hold my hand!” Carol shouted, trying to grab the back of Paeden’s shirt as he began to dash off as soon as she told him what direction the tigers were in and missed. Within seconds, Paeden was lost in the crowd and Carol felt a chill race down her spine.

“Oh no, Darryl’s going to kill me!” Carol whined as she took off at a jog, squirming through the throng of people and trying to ignore the glares of the people she had to push passed.

Luckily, by the time Carol reached the tiger enclosure she found that Paeden was still enraptured. The kid was standing on the railing, eyes wide as he stared transfixed on a big, orange tiger that was lying on top of his little rock den and appeared for all the world to be looking right back at Paeden.

“Paeden! You can’t just go running off like that, there’s a lot of people out here!” Carol said loudly once she got up next to the boy. Paeden winced and tore his eyes from the tiger, looking up at Carol sheepishly.

“Uh, I’m uh, I’m sorry Carol. Are you mad?”

Carol cringed, feeling a little bad to spoil Paeden’s day just because he got excited. “No, just, how about we hold hands when we go to the next animal, okay buddy? That way I won’t get lost, right?”

“That way you won’t…?” Paeden’s eyes widened. “Oh, I get it! You weren’t scared old Paeden was in trouble, you were scared to be around all these tough animals without Paeden to protect you!”

Carol stifled a laugh with all her willpower. “Absolutely. So you’ll stay close next time, right?”

“You got it, ma’am. Don’t worry, Paeden’s got the eye of the tiger. I won’t let you down.”

“Great! So, how do you like the tiger?”

“It’s pretty frigging awesome.”

“Damn right it is,” Carol nodded. They stood watching the tiger for another minute. It didn’t do much other than roll onto its back to sun its tummy. A bunch of cameras started clicking around them. Well, it was pretty cute.

“I want what he has,” Paeden said quietly.

“What’s that?”

“Stripes. And orange hair.”

Carol’s lips twitched. “Your hair’s already orange, you know.”

“Not orange like THAT. Plus the stripes. That would looks so boss.”

“Huh,” Carol squinted at him. “I guess I can see that. So, did you just want to keep looking at the tiger, or did you want to see something else? They’ve got lions and penguins, bears…”

“Oh yeah, I’d ridden a bear into battle before.”

“Uh, really?” Carol winced.

“Yeah. Well, I guess it was really Henry turned into a bear. I guess it could be cool riding an actual bear for a change, though.”

“You don’t ride the animals here, Paeden.”

“What? Why not?”

Carol took Paeden’s hand and tried her best to explain why animals were dangerous as they continued on their zoo adventure. Paeden did not seem to imbibe any of it, but he didn’t try running off into the crowd again either, so Carol would call that a win.

They saw the bears, which Paeden growled at and was disappointed when they failed to growl back. They saw the lions, and Paeden roared at them, and was disappointed when they failed to roar back. They saw the penguins and Paeden only seemed mildly interested (but they still stayed a while because the penguins were Carol’s favourite and she knew all their names and damn it she was allowed to have nice things.)

Altogether, Carol would say things were going pretty well for how awkward she was afraid it would turn out. Paeden was a good kid, just a little energetic. She’d wear him out at the zoo and he’d probably just want to chill until Darryl and Henry got back. Perfect.

“Uh… what’s that supposed to be?” Paeden asked suddenly, tugging on Carol’s shirt. She turned to see the tall, metal bars of the gorilla enclosure and one of the big, male, silverback gorillas happened to be standing right up next to the fence, fingers holding onto the bars as he looked at the masses that were more than happy to be looking back at him.

“A gorilla, one of the closest living relatives of the human species,” Carol said with a smile, excited to share some fun facts. “Some of them have even been taught how to use sign language to communicate with their handlers! Probably not these guys, though.”

“What?” Paeden squinted suspiciously at the ape. “There is no way that’s an animal. That’s like, a guy. I’ve totally seen guys that look like that. Maybe not as hairy but like, guys can get pretty hairy. Pretty sure that’s just a guy.”

Carol snorted. “I promise that’s an animal, Paeden. Do you want to get a closer look?”

“Yes!” Paeden announced, releasing Carol’s hand to go stand closer to the enclosure. Carol stayed a bit further back this time since the crowd was getting thick again. As long as she could see Paeden things were probably fine.

Carol watched the gorilla as it got bored of standing and sank into a sit where it started to idly wave a plastic enrichment toy around. Carol had to admit, if Paeden had never seen an ape before, she didn’t blame him for thinking it was more than just an animal. It certainly looked pretty human from certain angles. Huh.

“ _HEY KID, GET DOWN FROM- **GET OUT OF THERE!”**_

Carol zoned back in quickly enough, looking around frantically for Paeden as the crowd started to churn and shouting was heard from the zookeepers.

“What’s wrong? What’s happening?” Carol gasped, heart hammering in her chest as she fought through the crowd. “PAEDEN! Paeden, where did you- oh my God.”

Carol clasped a hand over her mouth when she realised that somehow, some way, Paeden had gotten _inside the gorilla cage._

“PAEDEN WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE?!” Carol shrieked as Paeden shoved his hands in his pockets and casually walked up behind the gorilla who was starting to get riled up by the shouting of the crowd. Luckily the one male gorilla seemed to be the only one outside that day, but one gorilla that size could do a hell of a lot of damage.

Paeden noticed Carol yelled and waved. “Hi Carol! It’s fine, I’m just getting a closer look at this ‘animal’,” Paeden did air quotes as he spoke.

“Ma’am, is that your kid?” one of the zookeepers beside the enclosure asked her as he tried to slip a restraining device through the bars and around the gorilla’s arm.

“Yes! Yes, he’s my- he’s with me. I’m so sorry, he’s just, he got away and-”

“Ma’am, you need to get your son to back off slowly. Tell him.”

“Paeden!” Carol said loudly, trying to force as much authority into her voice as possible. Paeden paused in his walking, looking at her with wide eyes.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Paeden, you are _not allowed_ inside the animal cages, okay? You’re… you’re breaking the rules, and you don’t want me to be mad at you, right?”

That got his attention. He looked horrified. “You’re mad at me?”

“I’m pretty upset, yeah!” Carol said, nodding a little crazily. “You need to get out of that cage right now. See the zookeeper near that door behind you? You need to get to him and he’ll get you out. You hear me? You need to get out of there.”

“Slowly!” the zookeeper hissed, missing his target with the restraining device. The gorilla was starting to stand up again.

“Slowly!” Carol repeated, louder, but Paeden was already turning and starting to run. The gorilla noticed and in a split second it roared and took off loping after the speedy little kid. Carol screamed bloody murder as it looked like Paeden was about to be snatched off the ground and beaten bloody, but he managed to get just close enough to the zookeeper that he was able to hit the gorilla with a Taser and knocked it down long enough for Paeden to get out. The crowd cheered uproariously as the zookeeper took Carol’s arm and ushered her around the enclosure to find out what the punishment was for pissing off a gorilla at the zoo.

*

As it turned out, punishment basically boiled down to being begged not to go to court over the animal cages being too easy to break into, a humble request to leave the zoo early that day to avoid causing a crowd if Paeden was recognised, and giving Paeden a voucher for one free item from the zoo gift shop.

Getting back into the car with his stuffed tiger clutched in his arms, Paeden looked up at Carol through the rear-view mirror with a worried expression.

“Um, I really didn’t know you weren’t allowed in the cage? I thought it was like, a challenge thing, and no one else was strong enough to climb it.”

Carol swallowed as she started the car and began pulling out of the parking lot. “Well, next time you aren’t sure you understand the rules about something, you need to ask me first, okay?”

“Okay, but like, I thought I _did_ understand the rules, I was just wrong.” Carol’s mouth thinned and Paeden swallowed audibly. “But uh, I’m sorry.”

There was quiet for a bit.

“Do you hate me for real, now?” Paeden asked after a minute.

“No, of course I don’t hate you!” Carol said without a thought. Of course she didn’t hate him! “I’m upset that you were almost mauled by a gorilla! You know on earth we don’t have magic healing! Even if you survived you could’ve been sent to the hospital for months after something like that attacked you!”

“Oh,” Paeden blinked, sinking down in his seat and holding his tiger tighter. “I guess I never thought about it that way.”

Carol sighed as she got back on the road and she heard a growling stomach coming from behind her. “How about we stop at McDonalds on the way back? Might as well grab some late lunch.”


	3. Lunch Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They stop at McDonalds for lunch and Paeden doesn't know how the Play Place works.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ONE MORE CHAPTER AFTER THIS i have too many WIPs I cant keep this going forever jesus donut XD

**3 Lunch Break**

When Carol pulled up to the McDonalds closest to her apartment building, Paeden’s mouth dropped open.

“W-wait, I thought all these ones were closed?” Paeden stammered, and Carol looked at him incredulously in the rear-view mirror.

“What do you mean? Darryl never took you to _McDonalds?_ ”

“No, obviously we went to McDonald’s. I like their McNuggets. Nick called them _nugs_ which is real cool. But every time I said I wanted to go to the ones with the big slides in the windows, everyone kept telling me they were closed and I couldn’t go in!”

That was weird. Carol wondered what long-winded joke Darryl was trying to play with this one. Well, they were already there and Carol was hungry. “Uh, well this one’s still open. I guess… Darryl didn’t know?”

“Well I’m gonna have to tell him! This is great, I love slides, and I think those are tunnels? Love a good training course, and I’ll bet there’s some cool kids in there too ready to throw down with a Paeden like me.”

“Hm? Yeah, making friends in the McDonald’s ball pit is always a fun time,” Carol said, a little distracted as she waited for a giant pick-up truck to pull out of the space next to her before opening her door. Paeden had already crawled out of the back seat by the time Carol got out herself, and it took a bit of convincing to get Paeden to leave his tiger in the car (‘Tigers aren’t allowed in McDonalds’ ‘What? Why?’ ‘… why do you think all the others are closed?’ ‘Tiger related injuries. I gotcha’). When they got inside, Carol was immediately hit by the sounds of children screaming and laughing through the glass walls of the Play Place.

“You want the McNugget kids’ meal, right?” Carol confirmed as Paeden nodded, transfixed now on the slides, tunnels, and ball pit being ravaged by a hoard of very loud children, most (but not all) of whom seemed younger than Paeden by at least a few years. But the sign said ages 11 and under so, he should be good to go. “Okay, I’ll stay in line, remember to take your shoes off and put them in the cubby, and come back when I have the food. You want a Coke?”

“Uh, I’m more of a Sprite man.”

“Ha, so was Darryl’s dad,” Carol grinned.

“Well yeah, we were the same person for a while.” Paeden rolled his eyes, taking off for the Play Place room before Carol could ask him what the _hell_ that was supposed to mean.

Shrugging it off, Carol stayed in line till she reached the self-serve touch screen and punched in a kid’s meal for Paeden and a BLT McChicken sandwich meal for herself. As she waited in line for the food, she could swear the noise from the play area was getting louder. It occurred to her that there were a bunch of signs telling parents not to leave kids unattended in the play area. But, well, there weren’t _that_ many people in line? How much trouble could Paeden get into in five minutes?

*

Paeden knew he kind of beefed it at the zoo with the whole gorilla thing, but as soon as he set foot in the McDonalds Play Place, he knew how he was going to make it up. It didn’t take him long to assess what he was looking at. An indoor area attached to an eating establishment, full of children and obstacles? He even saw two kids pushing each other around in the ball pit, clearly trying to establish dominance. This was a child fighting ring if he ever saw one, and Paeden was going to get in there, win, and give the trophy to Carol as a sign of fealty and respect. Being one of the older ones in the free for all, Paeden figured he had more of an edge than usual, but he figured the most sporting thing to do was to take out the older kids first and let the younger ones pick each other off until only the strongest one was left, providing the most fair fight. Basic UFC Free for All etiquette right there.

Paeden strolled up to the side of the ball pit. He wadded confidently through the multi-coloured balls up to the eight year old blonde girl who was sitting on a similarly aged brunette boy and farting. Paeden locked eyes with the girl and grinned.

“Are you ready to _throw down_?” asked Paeden.

“ _Always,_ ” whispered the blonde girl, jumping off the fallen boy and launching herself at Paeden’s face, sharp teeth glinting as she immediately hit Paeden much harder than he was expecting, immediately knocking him back into the balls where he flailed and drowned amongst them.

“OH NO, OH FRIG- PAEDEN MADE A MISTAKE!” Paeden wailed as he swung his limbs blindly around the balls as he heard the tell-tale sound of a toot. “OH NOOOOO!”

“Okay, that’s enough!” called an unknown adult voice. Abruptly the blonde girl’s body was yanked off of Paeden, and with a few good swimming strokes Paeden made it to the surface of the ball pit again just in time to be yanked out himself and set on his feet outside of it. There was a lady wearing a McDonalds uniform with bright blue hair looking down at him, and Paeden’s eyes went wide. “You okay?”

“Uh huh. Why is your hair blue? It looks cool.”

The lady smirked. “Thanks kid. No fights in the ball pit, though. Is your mom or dad around?”

The look of admiration dropped from his face like a stone as Paeden noted the blonde girl being forcibly sat at a table by a blonde woman who was presumably her mother and force-fed an apple slice. “ _No_ fights in the ball pit? But it’s… it’s a _pit_! All the best fights happen in pits!”

“That might be true,” admitted the blue haired lady, “But it’s zero tolerance policy. No fighting.”

“Jesus,” Paeden shook his head in disbelief. “Well, I mean, I guess it’s probably expensive cleaning the blood off that many balls.”

“Yeah, I definitely don’t get paid enough to do it.”

“Huh. Well, I suppose I should respect the laws of the land. When in Rome, as Henry says. Not sure why he says that, but he does. I will bid you adieu then, and conduct my next fight…” he squinted up at the play structure and pointed at the yellow tube spiralling down on the left. “In that slide. I bet if I wait halfway down with a knife, no one will see me coming.”

Then Paeden pulled out his switchblade that Glenn gave him for emergencies and brandished it in the air before the blue-haired lady’s eyes.

“WOAH, WHAT THE F-”

*

Carol walked into the Play Place holding a tray of food. The first thing she saw was Paeden whining on the floor where he was pinned by one of the McDonald’s employees, a knife being pried from his hand while another employee ran around demanding everyone stand back.

“Aw, shit,” Carol muttered as the employee reached her, just as the other one finally got the blade out of Paeden’s hand.

“Ma’am, everything’s fine, one of the kids had a knife but no one’s been hurt. The boy’s fine, we need to do this to ensure everyone’s safety.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Carol said dully.

“Did you find his mom yet?!” the employee on the floor with Paeden asked as the boy squirmed in her grip. In one of his thrashings, Paeden caught sight of Carol and smiled brightly.

“Hi Carol! Don’t worry about ol’ Paeden, I’ve fought adults before, and I’m definitely gonna come out on top! She took my knife, but you know me, I always got a spare! AH HA!” Paeden yelled as he pulled another, smaller knife out of his shoe and aimed to plunge it into the McDonalds employee’s side.

“PAEDEN, STOP!” Carol screamed, and Paeden’s hand froze an inch from making contact. The employee, eyes huge, snagged that knife too and jumped off the kid, backing up.

“That’s your kid?” the employee nearest her asked. Carol groaned and nodded. He had knives? Why did he have knives? He probably got them from Glenn. Something else to add to the ‘concerns’ list. “Look, ma’am, I’m sorry but we’re going to have to ask you to leave.”

Carol took a deep breath and out through her nose. She nodded, and pushed her full tray into the employee’s hands. “Bag this up for me, please.”

Then she walked over to Paeden who seemed to have noticed a Change in the Air and frowned at Carol’s approach.

“Uh… something wrong?”

“Well, we’ve been asked to leave so that’s not the best scenario.”

Paeden winced. “Aw no, this wasn’t a Free For All, was it? I’m sorry, I should’ve known it was no weapons, I didn’t see any when I came in, I should’ve read the room better.”

“Paeden, there’s no fighting in the Play Place. We don’t do that here.”

Paeden frowned. “Well, where _do_ you have junior blood sport rings, then?”

“Blood sport’s illegal in the US, bud.”

“WHAT?!”

Carol ended up carrying Paeden out under one arm with their drink tray in the other and the McDonald’s bag clenched in her teeth. Paeden was struggling and ranting about the glory and honour and character building of junior blood sport as many parents turned to stare.

Luckily by this point, Carol was just burnt out enough not to care. She loaded Paeden into the car, shoved his tiger into his arms again, and handed him his McNuggets. He shut up when Carol took one and forced it into his open mouth.

“If I hadn’t had blood sport, I’d never be the man I am tod-AH-!” Paeden chewed on the nugget and quieted as Carol walked around the car, got in the driver’s seat, and pulled out her own meal. They ate in silence for a couple of minutes as Paeden thought about the previous several minutes.

He swallowed. “So, I’m starting to think maybe I handled that badly? And I just want to say I am sorry, and in the future I will run all potential combat by you before I engage.”

“Mmhm,” Carol said around a bite of sandwich.

“… are you mad?”

She swallowed. “I’m… disappointed.”

Paeden reeled back in his seat as though taking a D4 of psychic damage. “Ooh, oh man that one hurt. It won’t happen again, I promise! Cross my heart!”

Carol sighed. “Maybe we should just go back to the condo for the rest of the day.” Less people to stab there, at least.

“Yeah,” Paeden agreed as Carol finished her sandwich, dusted off her fingers and started the car. “Oh, uh, hey quick question. That lady in there that took my knife, she had blue hair?”

“Uh huh?”

“I didn’t know people here could have blue hair. Darryl said there wasn’t any magic on Earth, except this fake kind Henry can do, but he also said that all the Play Places were closed so like, I’m not sure that’s true now.”

Back on the road with a full belly, Carol was feeling a little better and managed to smile a bit. “No, no magic on Earth. She used a hair dye. You can get them at drug stores, and it takes an hour or two to do it, but it’s pretty cheap and easy to do.”

“WHAT!” Paeden gasped. “Can I do it? Can I dye my hair? I want to do it!”

Carol thought for a minute. Would Darryl or Henry care if Carol helped Paeden dye his hair?

Then she remembered neither of them decided to warn her that Paeden carried knives and liked to try to start fights with things ten times his size.

“Yeah, sure, why not?” Carol shrugged. Couldn’t go worse than anything else.


	4. Afternoon Cool Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carol and Paeden head back to the condo for hair dying, a good movie, and a heart to heart before Darryl gets back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter gang! Hope yall think its cute!

**4 Afternoon Cool Down**

The entire trip to the drug store Carol felt like she was watching Paeden like a hawk. However, vigilance proved unnecessary (supposedly, she didn’t have to pull him out of anything but god knows what would’ve happened if she had actually left him to his own devices). They went in, looked at the wall full of hair dye, and Paeden eagerly grabbed the most fire-engine red colour he could get his hands on.

“You know your hair is already red, right?” Carol asked as Paeden held the hair dye box directly above his head while frantically singing the Legend of Zelda ‘found an item’ tune on loop with no sign of stopping. The question, at least, interrupted it.

“Uh, _no_ , my hair is orange. This is red like fresh blood. This way when my enemies see me coming, they’ll know I don’t fear death.”

Carol sucked on her bottom lip for a second, quickly thinking that, well, at least with the red dye they won’t need to bleach his hair and it wasn’t a _huge_ change so, well, Darryl might not even notice really. Not to mention it would be harder to mess up. “Okay, if you say so. Let’s go pay for it, then.”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Paeden said, spinning on the spot and wiggling his hips. He was certainly a lot more expressive a child than Grant ever was. Carol had to admit it was pretty fun to watch him run around and turn circles when he wasn’t wreaking havoc. Putting a hand on the back of his neck, Carol started directing him to the register, already thinking of spoiling him with some M&Ms on the way out.

*

“I’m gonna look so fricken cool,” Paeden said, wiggling in the kitchen chair with a garbage bag draped over his shoulders to keep the dye off his shirt and his hair plastered to his skull as Carol’s gloved hands kept running through it. She had to make him swear to tell her if it started burning his scalp but she didn’t exactly take his assurances at face value so she was also trying to search for reddening skin at the same time. Of course, given that the hair dye was also red, that wasn’t going so well. His nose had also wrinkled a lot at first from the smell but he seemed to be used to it now if his eager words were anything to go by. “All the guys are gonna be hella jealous. This is so pog.”

“Well, you’ll stand out anyway,” Carol nodded along as she finished off the last of the dye bottle and wiped her forehead on her forearm. “Looking good I think. So we have to leave it in for about half an hour.”

“ _Half an hour_?” Paeden’s mouth dropped open. “Aw man, that’s forever!”

“Yeah well, life’s tough like that.”

Paeden paused, pursing his lips for a second before giving a sage nod. “You know what? You’re right. I can take it, coach.”

Carol snorted as she nudged Paeden into standing. “How about we start a movie while we’re waiting? I think we can ride out this afternoon on a lower key.”

“I hear you, gotta conserve energy for later when I show everyone my sick new hair.”

Carol moved the chair into the bedroom to spare her bed from being streaked with red hair dye and started thumbing through her DVD collection for something appropriate to show a kid Paeden’s age. Finding herself faced with mainly horror and high-brow sci-fi, this was proving a little trickier than she thought.

“Oh, this is a modern classic. Did Darryl show you Pacific Rim?” Carol asked, pulling out the BluRay and holding it up for Paeden to see.

“Hm, no I don’t think we’ve gotten around to that one. What’s it about?”

“The power of platonic love being enough to overcome all obstacles and using connections with others to deal with loss,” Carol said very quickly. When that failed to get an immediate positive reaction as Paeden processed her words, she amended. “Giant robots fighting giant monsters.”

“Pog.”

*

Paeden was enchanted from the first five minutes and was soon on the edge of his seat for every action sequence, hands clenching the wood of the chair and chanting ‘yes! Yes! Yes!’ every time something got punched.

Carol has to admit, she was getting into it too. She was sat up against her headboard, hugging one of her day-cushions against her chest as Mako and Raleigh sparred. God she loved this movie. Mako was so cool. When was the last time she’d watched this? Two, three weeks ago? She’d been watching a lot of movies these last… months. Hm. Well, it was nice watching with someone who’d never seen it before at least. Paeden’s excitement was bleeding into her and she was certainly smiling more than she had on her last viewing.

Then about an hour in, Carol’s eyes drifted over to Paeden and thought, ‘huh, his hair’s still… oh fuck.’ “PAEDEN!”

“WHAT? WHERE’S THE FIRE?!” Paeden yelped, jumping to his feet.

“Your hair! I forgot your hair! We gotta wash it out!”

“Oh man, what happens if you leave dye in too long? Does it- is my hair gonna fall out?”

“Uh…” Carol blinked, “I don’t… know? But we gotta wash it out before we find out the hard way. Let’s go!”

Carol ushered Paeden quickly into the bathroom, pulling the flexible shower head off the wall as Paeden lowered his head over the tub. As soon as the water wasn’t freezing, Carol was running it through his hair, squeezing the red dye down the train.

“Woah, holy crap!” Paeden gasped.

“What’s wrong? Is it too hot?” Carol sprayed her own wrist to make sure.

“Huh? Nah, just looking like there’s a bunch of blood going down the train. It’s pretty pog.”

Carol blinked. “You keep saying that. What’s pog?”

“Pog. It means cool. Lark taught me. Oh man, that was a whole glob! Looked like, uh, _brain matter_. Dying hair is so poggers.”

Carol’s lips were twitching again. “You know what? That does look pretty cool. Here comes another stream!” She squeezed another section of soaked curls and Paeden cooed in delight as another rush of red sailed down the drain.

Once the water was running clear, Carol attacked Paeden’s hair with a towel and explained what the bottle of special after-care conditioner was for. Paeden nodded along, squinting into the mirror as soon as Carol took the towel away.

“Huh. Looks darker than I expected.”

“Yeah, having it in that long probably means it’ll be extra dark. But it’ll get lighter as it dries off. Let’s go finish the movie and by then you should be able to see it in all its glory. Sound good?”

Paeden sighed heavily. “It’s always something, huh? Oh well, at least it’s different I guess.”

“It’ll look better when it’s dry, I promise,” Carol said, fingers trailing along the tops of Paeden’s ears and lifting his hair to check the back of his neck. Yep, both of those and the line across his forehead were pretty damn red. Well… at least it wasn’t actually blood? Things weren’t looking great when that was the bright side. She could do better. At least… Paeden was happy? Would be happy? “How about I order pizza for dinner?”

Paeden brightened up a lot at that. “Can it… can it have pineapple on it?”

Carol’s entire demeanour picked up and she grinned. “I _love_ pineapple on pizza.”

“Darryl said it was a crime!”

“Darryl can shove it up his…. Uh… butt!”

“YEAH!” Paeden screamed as Carol grabbed her phone and speed dialled them up a Hawaiian.

*

By the time Pacific Rim was done, Paeden’s hair was dry (and maybe a bit more brittle than before… hopefully that damage wasn’t permanent). Still, frizzy or not, it was VERY red so Carol wasn’t exactly surprised when she directed Paeden back to the mirror and he started screaming in utter joy.

“CAROL! Carol, look at my hair! It’s so red! IT’S SO RED! I love it. I love it, I love this, you’re so cool. You’re so pog Carol. In fact you? You’re pogchamp that’s what you are. I loooooove you, Carol!”

That was a bit more unexpected. It was also topped off by Paeden throwing his arms around Carol’s waist and squeezing for all he was worth, which was admittedly a little harder than Carol liked to be hugged but she figured she could brush it off this time. Wow, this kid was cute as hell. No wonder he had Henry and Mercedes trying to adopt him.

And if she’d just stayed with Darryl maybe they could have adopted…

No, she wasn’t going to think that way. The doorbell rang announcing the arrival of their pizza and Paeden took off top speed to the front door to show off his hair to the pizza guy and Carol shouted for them to hold up until she got her purse. Maybe Paeden wouldn’t be her son officially, but there’s no way in hell this was going to be the last time they hung out. Even if when she reached the front door the pizza guy was on the floor because Paeden claimed he could put him in a sleeper hold and the pizza guy said he didn’t believe him.

“Oh, uh, hey Carol. Um… he’s going to wake up soon, I swear. Aw man, am I in trouble again? I swear I had consent!”

“You know Paeden?” Carol said with a sigh as she pushed the pizza guy’s body out into the hallway and tucked a twenty into his shirt pocket before shutting the door on him, “You’re pretty poggers, too.”

“… pog.”

*

Paeden was feeling pretty damn good. His hair looked cool. He had a new tiger friend. Fought some folks, and best of all he definitely impressed Carol. The two of them had watched the rest of the movie sitting on Carol’s bed together with the pizza box open between them and she wasn’t even mad when he dropped one of the slices face down on the comforter! Said she was looking for an excuse to get a new one anyway so yeah, Paeden was doing pretty good.

As the movie finished, Paeden sighed and stretched, trying to be casual about it as he leaned his head on Carol’s shoulder. “That was a good movie.”

“Yep, one of my modern favs. It’s no Primer, but it gets the job done.”

“I wonder who I’d be drift compatible with,” Paeden frowned. “I mean, Lark and Sparrow could drift together obviously. Henry, Mercedes and Darryl could do one of those three way ones for sure.”

He felt Carol tense under him but wasn’t sure why. She still answered. “What about Grant? Could you drift with him?”

“Nah. I mean, I love Grant, but I feel like we’re not always on the same level. Grant could drift with Darryl but, I dunno. Neither of them like pineapple on pizza either, and they’re always telling me to stop fighting and stuff… I dunno. I love them, but like, sometimes…” Paeden sighed deeply.

“Sometimes what?” Carol asked after a moment of quiet. She used the remote to shut off the TV when the credits ended.

Paeden shifted against her side. “I dunno. I guess sometimes I still feel worried I’m not really a part of the group, you know? Darryl and the other dads from the beginning were always saying I was one of them, especially when they found out I was a dad…”

“Uh…”

“But they still were always leaving me on the sidelines when they did cool stuff! And now Grant and the others say it’s okay if I hang out with them, but Grant and Terry Junior never want to talk about Faerun and get weird when I don’t know earth stuff, and Lark and Sparrow and Nick make a lot of references to stuff I don’t get and…” Paeden sighed again. “I just want to feel like I belong but maybe that’s never going to totally happen.”

“Hm, yeah that’s a tough one,” Carol said quietly, clearly thinking on her words before she spoke them. Paeden was silent as he waited. He knew Darryl said it a lot, but even if he hadn’t Paeden would’ve gotten the sense that Carol was pretty smart and worth listening to. “You know, I think we’re on the same wavelength Paeden. I don’t really think I fit in with groups that well, either.”

“Really? But you’re always inviting us all over all the time! I figured you were pretty social, at least with the other grownups.”

“Not really,” Carol snorted, “I didn’t even feel like I fit in with my own family so I ended up leaving. Then I spent months avoiding people so it wouldn’t be awkward. Now I’m trying to get back into socializing, but no matter how hard I try to be useful, or likable, or organize things, I always feel a little outside of it. Like there’s a wall there. Like… well, like you know logically they want to be around you or else they would be avoiding you, right? But it still doesn’t feel quite natural. Not quite like you belong.”

“Yeah, yeah like that!” Paeden stared at Carol, heart thumping in his chest. “Wow, it’s like you read my mind or something, that’s wild.”

“Guess so. I don’t think it’s an unusual feeling. Just… don’t do what I did and isolate yourself over it.” She paused. “But… feel free to step back and take time to yourself, too. Or uh, huh. I guess if you ever feel like you need to talk about it, you could call me. At least I’ll get the feeling, right?”

“You… you don’t think it’s bad, that we feel like that?”

Carol winced. “I don’t think it’s bad, though obviously it doesn’t feel great. I think it’s just something we need to deal with. Sometimes we won’t feel like we belong, but we have to trust the people we care about care about us, even if we don’t always like the same things, or get the same jokes, or even if the reason we aren’t clicking isn’t obvious at the time. We gotta just… keep pushing through it.”

“Yeah,” Paeden breathed. “You’re really smart, just like Darryl said.”

“He said that, huh?” Carol gave a wry smile. “Darryl’s a good guy.”

“Definitely.”

“And he’s doing well, right? He’s happy?”

“Seems like it to me.”

“Yeah. I’m… I’m glad. I’m glad he’s happy. With them, I mean.” Carol looked down at her lap and Paeden bit his lip, sensing a change in mood.

“Hey Carol?”

“Yeah?”

“You know… I don’t feel like I don’t belong right now.”

“No?” Carol looked at him, and for a moment that caught in his throat he felt like she was _really_ looking at him. Then she smiled. “You know what, kid? I don’t feel like I don’t belong right now, either.”

“Oh my gosh,” Paeden whispered. “Maybe _we’re_ drift compatible.” Carol looked away just as Paeden thought he saw her tear up. “Woah, hey! Ms. Carol, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you upset! I-”

But Paeden’s words cut off and Carol gathered him up into a hug and shushed him.

*

“Hey guys! Henry’s got the car running outside, we’ve got to go pick Grant up on the way back too. Hey, there’s a guy passed out in the hallway by the way. WOAH, Paeden! Your hair is uh…” Darryl glanced from Paeden to Carol standing in the doorway of the condo with a raised eyebrow.

“Isn’t it _pog_?” Paeden grinned widely, running a hand through it. “Carol did it for me. Oh, and I also got THIS GUY! Meet Paeden Junior.” Paeden thrust his stuffed tiger in Darryl’s face and he laughed, looking at Carol a bit strangely.

“You uh, you dyed his hair?”

“Yep,” said Carol.

Darryl sighed. “I mean, I’m glad he’s happy and all, but I would’ve appreciated it if you let me know before letting him do something like that. Henry might get upset if he finds out the dye wasn’t vegan.”

Carol grimaced. “Oh right, I forgot that was a thing. Well, alright. I apologize for that. Though for the record, I’d also have appreciated it if you’d have made sure Paeden had his coat when he got out of the car this morning before you drove off.”

“What? Paeden you didn’t have your-”

“And made sure you warned me that he might not know stuff like how you shouldn’t climb into cages in the zoo.”

“PAEDEN! You climbed-”

“Or explained to me why you might not want to let him into a McDonalds Play Place.”

Darryl’s eyes bugged out. “He went in the-”

“Or maybe made sure he didn’t have any knives on him when you dropped him off, that would’ve been nice.”

Darryl made a strangled grunt in the back of his throat and then sucked in a breath. “In my defense, I did make him turn in three knives and swear he didn’t have more.”

Both Darryl and Carol looked down at Paeden who was holding his tiger and keeping his mouth clamped shut till this point remarkably. However, that was probably easier done since he was curled up on the floor and snoring.

“Wow, must’ve been a busy day,” said Darryl as he bent down to gather the boy into his arms.

“It was,” Carol nodded and Darryl winced.

“I guess after all that, uh, you probably aren’t gonna want to babysit again, huh? I’m sorry, I should’ve-”

“Oh no, you’re not getting away with that!” Carol said sharp enough that Darryl straightened to attention. “That’s one of the sweetest little boys I’ve met in my life, and if this divorce friendship is going to work, you, me, and the Oak-Garcia’s are going to be working out a new custody agreement. I better be seeing this little guy at LEAST as often as I see Grant, you got it?”

Darryl bit his lip as it twitched, and Carol fought back her own smile. “O-oh yeah? He got to even you, huh?”

Carol rolled her eyes and looked at the sleeping boy in her ex-husband’s arms. “How could I not? He’s a real sweetie.” She paused. “Actually, there is one other thing I want to ask about. I know he’s from that magic world, but he mentioned something about being uh… somehow involved with your dad, Frank? What’s that about?”

Darryl visibly paled and backed out the door. “Oh man, he said that? That’s crazy! Uh, I’ll have to explain that another time, Henry’s waiting, bye!”

“Darryl? HEY GET BACK HERE!” Carol yelled as Darryl disappeared down the fire escape staircase, Paeden in tow. With a sigh, she looked down at the unconscious pizza guy still in the hallway, snoring gently himself. She tucked an extra twenty into his shirt pocket and went to put the remains of the pizza away.


End file.
